editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Noah Adams, long-time co-host of NPR's All Things Considered , brings more than three decades of radio experience to his current job as a contributing correspondent for NPR's National Desk., focusing on the low-wage workforce, farm issues, and the Katrina aftermath. Now based in Ohio, he travels extensively for his reporting assignments, a position he's held since 2003. Adams' career in radio began in 1962 at WIRO in Ironton, Ohio, across the river from his native Ashland, Kentucky. He was a "good music" DJ on the morning shift, and played rock and roll on Sandman's Serenade from 9 p.m. to midnight. Between shifts, he broadcasted everything from basketball games to sock hops. From 1963 to 1965, Adams was on the air from WCMI (Ashland), WSAZ (Huntington, W. Va.) and WCYB (Bristol, Va.). After other radio work in Georgia and Kentucky, Adams left broadcasting and spent six years working at various jobs, including at a construction company, an automobile dealership and an advertisingNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Noah AdamsSun, 06 May 2018 11:58:19 +0000Noah Adamshttp://kwit.org
Noah AdamsToday brings the familiar excitement of the Kentucky Derby. Television-ready, mint juleps and perhaps one of the few horse races many of us will watch all year. But an hour's drive from Churchill Downs, students and staff at Midway University may not find time to watch, because they're taking care of their own horses. Midway is an old town right in the center of the Bluegrass, and just on the edge you'll find an old college. It started as the Kentucky Female Orphan School, which came along in 1849, and later became Midway College, for women. Now it's coed and has grown into a university with 1,200 students. And the school's specialty? Horses plus Equine Management. Midway's a regular red-brick school that's almost surrounded by barns and paddocks. The school's 35 horses spend most of their nights outside, even in wind and spring rains. Early morning brings a day's dark rest in their stalls. They'll be properly fed and cleaned and brushed by some of the 75 students in the equine programOn Derby Day, Visiting A College Where You Can Major In Horses http://kwit.org/post/derby-day-visiting-college-where-you-can-major-horses
128862 as http://kwit.orgSat, 05 May 2018 12:22:00 +0000On Derby Day, Visiting A College Where You Can Major In Horses Noah AdamsWhen Making Books Was As Much Of An Art As Writing Themhttp://kwit.org/post/when-making-books-was-much-art-writing-them
118836 as http://kwit.orgFri, 24 Nov 2017 00:56:00 +0000When Making Books Was As Much Of An Art As Writing ThemNoah AdamsA legendary airplane that helped America win World War II is being reborn at age 75. The B-17 bomber "Memphis Belle" flew 25 missions against Nazi Germany and then came home to help sell war bonds and raise spirits. In recent years, the Belle has been undergoing a patient and precise restoration at the National Museum of the Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio. I went to see the work in progress and talk with some of the many technicians and volunteers. The restoration hangar is a vast, bright workspace, where the four-engine Flying Fortress has been stripped down to its bare aluminum. After eight years work the plane is still to be painted. This is the actual aircraft that I have watched in a documentary from 1944 . William Wyler, the Academy Award winning director, went to an Army Air Force base in England, and he and his team could take their cameras on the bombing runs — riding with the pilots, the gunners, the bombardier, navigator. The plane was built in the summer of 1942 byAt 75, A World War II Legend Gets A Full Makeoverhttp://kwit.org/post/75-world-war-ii-legend-gets-full-makeover
105848 as http://kwit.orgSat, 22 Apr 2017 12:14:00 +0000At 75, A World War II Legend Gets A Full MakeoverNoah AdamsThe young women in this story have labels. Three labels: Single, mother, college student. They're raising a child and getting an education — three of the 2.6 million unmarried parents attending U.S. colleges and universities. Getting a degree is hard enough for anyone, but these students face extra challenges. And when it comes to helping out with their needs, Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., is considered one of the best in the country. It's a liberal arts school with 1,100 students. There's a large farm, an equestrian program, and 15 students in the Single Parent Scholars program. This year all are moms, though men are welcome too. They live in apartments that once were dorm rooms. And they are easy to notice on campus. "We have children running around the dining hall while everyone else is trying to eat," says Heather Schuler. She's 25, a sophomore psychology major and the mother of a 2-year-old son. Schuler is sitting outside the dining hall with her friend Michelle Rogers, whoWhen The Students On Campus Have Kids Of Their Ownhttp://kwit.org/post/when-students-campus-have-kids-their-own
97100 as http://kwit.orgFri, 18 Nov 2016 13:30:00 +0000When The Students On Campus Have Kids Of Their OwnNoah AdamsCopyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: Summer is a season for festivals, and today, we're taking you to one in southern West Virginia. It's an annual festival of old-time music. People from around the country and world come to participate. NPR's Noah Adams takes us there. NOAH ADAMS, BYLINE: There is a formal title for this gathering, but the players, singers, dancers, the old-time music people call it Clifftop. And that name floats around the world. My first morning there, I got a cup of the best coffee, sat down at a picnic table across from a young woman. She was just minutes out of her tent waking up with the best coffee. Turns out, she's from France. VIRGINIE WINZER: A friend of mine told me that I should come to discover Clifftop. I had no idea about old-time music. I play, mostly, Irish music. And he said, just come to Clifftop. It's the best thing ever. ADAMS: Virginie Winzer brought her fiddle from France and also plays four-string tenor banjo. Old-timeMusicians Descend On West Virginia For Appalachian String Band Festivalhttp://kwit.org/post/musicians-descend-west-virginia-appalachian-string-band-festival
91621 as http://kwit.orgFri, 05 Aug 2016 20:34:00 +0000Musicians Descend On West Virginia For Appalachian String Band FestivalNoah AdamsA trusty Boeing 707 is inside a new home at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The plane has graceful lines of color: white, blues and gold. In large letters: "United States of America." Nowhere does it say Air Force One — that call sign is only used when a president is actually on board. The permanent tail number is SAM (Special Air Mission) 26000. Historian Jeff Underwood used to pronounce the tail number, like you would say the number 26,000, but he was wrong. "I was sharply corrected by one of the crew members," Underwood says. "He told me 'no it was the SAM two six thousand'. I learned my lesson I always refer to it as SAM two six thousand." It's often called the Kennedy airplane, the one that carried the president to Berlin in 1963. Later that year, on Nov. 22, John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy flew to Dallas, landing at Love Field. He was assassinated in Dallas, his body flown, on this plane, back to Andrews Air Force Base. We are on board Air ForceMuseum Builds New Hangar To Show Off Former Air Force Onehttp://kwit.org/post/museum-builds-new-hanger-show-former-air-force-one
88049 as http://kwit.orgSun, 05 Jun 2016 12:15:00 +0000Museum Builds New Hangar To Show Off Former Air Force OneNoah AdamsMarietta College has earned a global reputation for its program in petroleum engineering, drawing students from as far away as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and China to this liberal arts school in southeast Ohio. In the past, nearly every one of the program's graduates has scored a good job in the surging energy field. But not this year. As the price of oil has plummeted, companies are cutting back on production and expansion, and cutting into Marietta's placement rate. Katie Plas, scheduled to graduate in 2017, thinks she'll be OK. Her grades in the petroleum engineering program are top-level, and her freshman summer internship — a key element of the program — was exceptional. It's like a gold star on a resume. She worked as a roustabout in Arkansas. Plas says it was dirty work, and sometimes dangerous. "I wore flame-retardant clothing, all day long. And it gets rather hot especially when it's a hundred degrees." She was 19, using a sledgehammer, grateful for the growing-up work on her familyHow Low Oil Prices Are Changing Career Plans At An Ohio Collegehttp://kwit.org/post/how-low-oil-prices-are-changing-career-plans-ohio-college
83345 as http://kwit.orgSat, 12 Mar 2016 22:00:00 +0000How Low Oil Prices Are Changing Career Plans At An Ohio CollegeNoah AdamsThanksgiving feasts are always in need of something special. Can a sprinkle of artisanal salt noticeably pump up the experience? Let's meet a new Appalachian salt-maker in West Virginia and find out. J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works is nestled in the Kanawha River Valley, just southeast of the capital city of Charleston in the small town of Malden (not to be confused with Maldon , a sea salt brand from the U.K.). It's mostly pasture land, with cows nearby. Amid the livestock, there's a new, small — you could call it micro — salt works. "This is our well, in the field over here. It goes down 350 feet," Nancy Bruns, CEO of J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works, says. The wellhead is simple, white and about 2 feet high. It took a couple of weeks to drill, and then came the salty water. "It did gush; it absolutely did gush. We went through a lot of fresh water on the way down. And we all had cups, we were tasting it on the way down, and I just said no, keep drilling, it's not salty yet." She's a seventhFine Brine From Appalachia: The Fancy Mountain Salt That Chefs Prizehttp://kwit.org/post/fine-brine-appalachia-fancy-mountain-salt-chefs-prize
77202 as http://kwit.orgWed, 25 Nov 2015 23:09:00 +0000Fine Brine From Appalachia: The Fancy Mountain Salt That Chefs PrizeNoah Adamshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmRRhxo0RHc Here in Pall Mall, Tenn., you can walk up on the front porch of the Forbus General Store, est. 1892, and still hear Alvin C. York's rich Tennessee accent. Every day, the older neighbors gather on the store's front porch. "My grandfather used to cut Sgt. Alvin York's hair," Richard West recalls. "He would pay a quarter. He was a big man, redheaded." York was a Medal of Honor winner. One of the most decorated American heroes of World War I. At the end of the war, when he returned to his home here in the mountains of north Tennessee, all he wanted was to build a school. A school that would help his neighbors' kids get the education he had missed. York had only finished the third grade in a one-room school. His family needed him on the farm. But he liked to read, kept a diary, and because of the war had seen a world beyond the ridgeline: London, Paris, New York. Pete Smith, whittling red cedar on the porch, remembers the day of Alvin York'sRemembering Sgt. York, A War Hero Who Built A Schoolhttp://kwit.org/post/remembering-sgt-york-war-hero-who-built-school
76286 as http://kwit.orgWed, 11 Nov 2015 15:30:00 +0000Remembering Sgt. York, A War Hero Who Built A SchoolNoah AdamsIf you could make a lot of bourbon whiskey these days, you could be distilling real profits. Bourbon sales in this country are up 36 percent in the past five years. But you'd need new wooden barrels for aging your new pristine product. Simple white oak barrels, charred on the inside to increase flavor and add color, are becoming more precious than the bourbon. Making these barrels is a very old craft, almost an art, called cooperage. The Scots-Irish who settled in Appalachia could do this: Cut the white oak boards into staves, steam them to bend, make metal hoops to hold the barrel tight. You can see this process is the small town of Lebanon, Ky. This cooperage is one of several owned by a company called Independent Stave , which is based in Missouri and is the largest maker of whiskey barrels in the world. As the barrels take shape they are carried, rolled, and conveyed — sometimes overhead — to the different work stations. Starting out as a collection of oak staves, they are fittedAs Bourbon Booms, Demand For Barrels Is Overflowinghttp://kwit.org/post/bourbon-booms-demand-barrels-overflowing
57794 as http://kwit.orgMon, 29 Dec 2014 22:03:00 +0000As Bourbon Booms, Demand For Barrels Is OverflowingNoah AdamsHere's what might have sounded like a pretty shaky business plan for a neighborhood pizza cafe: "We'll only be open one day a week. Won't do any advertising. No prices on the menus. We'll serve mostly what we grow in the garden – and no pepperoni. And we'll look on this work as an 'experiment of faith.'" That's what Erin and Robert Lockridge said two years ago, when they decided to open a pizza place called Moriah Pie in Norwood, a small town part of greater Cincinnati. The better days in Norwood, an old neighborhood of two-story houses with porches, came to a close in 1989 when the Chevrolet plant shut down. But an empty, dusty café was waiting on a street corner, and Lockridges decided to start making pizzas there. These two shared an interest in urban farming and had been working together in Norwood. Robert was what he calls a "parish farmer" sponsored by a church. On their honeymoon, driving from Novia Scotia to Maine, they talked about what might come next. "We stopped at ...An Unlikely Friday Night Pizza Cafe Has A Big Hearthttp://kwit.org/post/unlikely-friday-night-pizza-caf-cinicinnati-has-big-heart
54184 as http://kwit.orgSun, 26 Oct 2014 14:22:00 +0000An Unlikely Friday Night Pizza Cafe Has A Big HeartNoah AdamsCopyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: If you happen to be thinking about buying a new bicycle pump, you'll soon see a floor pump priced at a whopping $450. The brand name is Silca. It's an Italian company that's been sold to an American bicycle engineer. Silca's production now happens in Indianapolis and NPR's Noah Adams went there to find out what could be so pricey about a pump. NOAH ADAMS, BYLINE: The new CEO is Josh Poertner. When he talks with bike people who are more than 40 years old and tells them he's bought the Silca brand, they get excited. However... JOSH POERTNER: If you're new to the sport or if you're under 30, you look at me completely incredulous and say, what - I've never even heard of that before? ADAMS: But Silca is long-established worldwide and Poertner's company is already shipping pumps overseas. POERTNER: 25 to Switzerland, 40 to England, five to Malaysia, 10 to Austria, 50 to Eurasia. ADAMS: Josh Poertner - as a teenager, he was racingWhat Makes A Bike Pump Worth $450?http://kwit.org/post/what-makes-bike-pump-worth-450
52487 as http://kwit.orgWed, 24 Sep 2014 20:27:00 +0000What Makes A Bike Pump Worth $450?Noah AdamsThis story began in 2012 while I was working on a story in Iowa. I was taking pictures on a foggy afternoon and saw a young girl on a blue bicycle, a newspaper bag slung across her shoulder. She stopped and held up a copy of The Daily Times Herald . These days, most newspapers are delivered by fast-moving adults driving vans and trucks. I guess I didn't know that kids still had paper routes, anywhere. Turns out, if you're a kid living near Carroll, Iowa, and you want to make some money and have an adventure, you're growing up in the right place. In Carroll, a town of 10,000 surrounded by farmland, factories and parks, the award-winning Daily Times Herald still relies on young people to get the news to local homes each day. The family that owns and runs the paper believes the most important news they cover is about the town's young people — schools, sports, the arts — and it just makes sense to have them delivering those stories to the community. Jaxson Kuhlmann delivers 36 to 38 papersCarroll, Iowa: Where The Childhood Paper Route Is Alive And Wellhttp://kwit.org/post/carroll-iowa-where-childhood-paper-route-alive-and-well
49739 as http://kwit.orgWed, 06 Aug 2014 21:26:00 +0000Carroll, Iowa: Where The Childhood Paper Route Is Alive And WellNoah AdamsWhen writer Julia Keller talks, you notice a touch of West Virginia — it is, after all, her home state. Her accent may have faded a bit during her newspaper career in Chicago, so she says when she started thinking about writing crime novels, she was happy to hear the Appalachian voices coming out of her memory. "I was probably the most surprised person of all when I chose to set my fiction in West Virginia," she says. "[I] hadn't lived here in a long time, didn't really know that it moved in my blood — if it did." Turns out it did. And Keller — whose latest novel Summer of the Dead comes out in August — learned it helps that when you're imagining something awful to go where it could happen. Fictional Town 'More Real Than The World That I See' Keller says rivers can be mysterious, dark metaphors. Her second book in the series, Bitter River , is about the killing of a young girl. Keller knew what the riverbank crime scene might look like before she even started writing. "I have to thankIn Mystery Series's W.Va. River Town, There's No Escape From Terrorhttp://kwit.org/post/mystery-series-wva-river-town-theres-no-escape-terror
47227 as http://kwit.orgThu, 26 Jun 2014 07:15:00 +0000In Mystery Series's W.Va. River Town, There's No Escape From TerrorNoah AdamsSaturday marks the 140th Run for the Roses: the Kentucky Derby. Great horses, great hats — but where's the Pappy Van Winkle bourbon for the mint juleps? Last October, more than 200 bottles of the prized spirit were stolen right out of the distillery in Frankfort, Ky. The county sheriff believes it was an inside job, and a $10,000 reward remains on offer. Pat Melton, the sheriff of Franklin County, Ky., has these facts: In the small city of Frankfort, 222 bottles disappeared from the Buffalo Trace Distillery. The bourbon had been aging in oak barrels, some since the mid-'90s, and the bottles were in a locked, secured area, ready to be shipped. Melton says this had to be an inside job. "It had to be internal. It was behind a second lock and key inside a warehouse," he says. "That was a good clue and a good start." A Reward From 'Somebody That Cares About Bourbon' In the sheriff's office, they're following the phone tips and the email trail. "Detectives have interviewed more than 100Want A Shot At $10,000? Solve Kentucky's Great Bourbon Mysteryhttp://kwit.org/post/want-shot-10000-solve-kentuckys-great-bourbon-mystery
43934 as http://kwit.orgFri, 02 May 2014 21:33:00 +0000Want A Shot At $10,000? Solve Kentucky's Great Bourbon MysteryNoah AdamsIn new installment of the Spring Break series, Noah Adams visits the Serpent Mound in southern Ohio. It's not a burial site; it's a massive, grass-covered effigy of a snake, created a thousand years ago. Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: On a grassy ridge in southern Ohio you can walk beside a thousand-year-old work of art - a mound of Earth that rises from the ground and uncoils like a magnificent snake. We're talking about the Serpent Mound. NPR'S Noah Adams went to see it on a trip that's part of our Spring Break series. NOAH ADAMS, BYLINE: The Serpent Mound sounds a little sinister. You can see a bit of it when you get out of your car. But maybe we should do what all Americans like to do first, go straight to the museum gift shop. It's a turkey call. The Native Americans might have used something like this, it's made from a piece of cane. Tim Goodwin demonstrated the turkey call for us. He is the Serpent Mound Park manager, showing us some of the IndianThe Ohio Snake Art That's Been Mid-Slither For A Millenniumhttp://kwit.org/post/ohio-snake-art-thats-been-mid-slither-millennium
43007 as http://kwit.orgThu, 17 Apr 2014 21:30:00 +0000The Ohio Snake Art That's Been Mid-Slither For A MillenniumNoah AdamsCopyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: The news about the chemical spill always mentions the Elk River. And some people who live close to Elk, but far from Charleston, take that personally. The way they put it, that's our clean water that we send downstream. The river flows on a winding course of 172 miles, from the eastern West Virginia Mountains. NPR's Noah Adams went to see where it all starts. NOAH ADAMS, BYLINE: The Elk River that goes to Charleston comes right out of the clouds in Pocahontas County. The mountains rise almost 5,000 feet. The water to create a river is from the cloud vapor - rain, snowfall and the cold springs in the high valleys. (SOUNDBITE OF RUNNING WATER) GIL WILLIS: If you look upstream from here and you look at that big rock there with the snow on it, you'll see where the water is bubbling out of the ground right there. ADAMS: This is Gil Willis. He has a cross-country ski and mountain bike center at Slatyfork. It's on one of theFor A New View On The West Virginia Spill, Follow The Elk Riverhttp://kwit.org/post/new-view-west-virginia-spill-follow-elk-river
40906 as http://kwit.orgThu, 13 Mar 2014 20:28:00 +0000For A New View On The West Virginia Spill, Follow The Elk RiverNoah AdamsIn The Heat Of The Foundry, Steinway Piano 'Hearts' Are Madehttp://kwit.org/post/heat-foundry-steinway-piano-hearts-are-made
33675 as http://kwit.orgSat, 09 Nov 2013 22:00:00 +0000In The Heat Of The Foundry, Steinway Piano 'Hearts' Are MadeNoah AdamsOne year ago the Michigan apple harvest, hurt by a late winter warm-up and a spring freeze, was almost nonexistent at 3 million bushels. This fall, the crop is projected to yield a record-setting 30 million bushels, but now there's concern that not enough pickers will be in the orchards. In west Michigan, there's an apple-growing region called The Ridge, where they will be talking for years down the road about that bleak 2012 apple calendar. At the time, grower Phil Schwallier said it was so bad they gave individual names to each apple they found , starting with Alice. "We got up to Rachel. We found, in other words, about 20 apples," he said. Fast forward a year and Schwallier says he is seeing a lot of great apples. "Blemish-free, large, nice red color, and firm," he says. "And they're sticking on the trees so far." When the apples are ready and ripe, getting them picked could be a problem. Even though there's more money on the trees, not enough seasonal workers have shown up. But soMichigan Apple Harvest Recovers, But Pickers Are Scarcehttp://kwit.org/post/michigan-apple-harvest-recovers-pickers-are-scarce
32501 as http://kwit.orgTue, 22 Oct 2013 07:17:00 +0000Michigan Apple Harvest Recovers, But Pickers Are ScarceNoah AdamsAs the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington , All Things Considered concludes its series about the moments that defined the historic summer of 1963 . Back in 1999, Noah Adams explored the history and legacy of the song "We Shall Overcome" for the NPR 100 . The audio link contains a condensed version of that piece. It is not a marching song. It is not necessarily defiant. It is a promise: "We shall overcome someday. Deep in my heart, I do believe." It has been a civil rights song for 50 years now, heard not just in the U.S. but in North Korea, in Beirut, in Tiananmen Square, in South Africa's Soweto Township. But "We Shall Overcome" began as a folk song, a work song. Slaves in the fields would sing, 'I'll be all right someday.' It became known in the churches. A Methodist minister, Charles Albert Tindley, published a version in 1901: "I'll Overcome Someday." The first political use came in 1945 in Charleston, S.C. There was a strike against the American TobaccoThe Inspiring Force Of 'We Shall Overcome'http://kwit.org/post/inspiring-force-we-shall-overcome
29215 as http://kwit.orgWed, 28 Aug 2013 22:39:00 +0000The Inspiring Force Of 'We Shall Overcome'